Bennington-4: Manchester | Arlington | Sunderland | Sandgate

About Me

Kathleen James is a nonprofit manager in
Manchester Center, Vermont, where she has lived for 22 years. She’s the executive director of the International Skiing History Association (ISHA), a nonprofit that works to preserve the
history of skiing worldwide. She’s also the
editor of ISHA’s journal, Skiing History.

Raised in Fremont, Nebraska, Kathleen earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. She worked as a Capitol Hill reporter for Roll Call, a
reporter-researcher for TIME, and a senior editor for Snow Country before settling in the Northshire in 1996. She has since worked as director of admissions at Southern Vermont
College, editor-in-chief of Vermont Magazine, and communications director at The BOMA Project, a U.S. nonprofit and Kenyan NGO that helps ultra-poor women to graduate from
extreme poverty in the arid lands of Africa.

Kathleen has served on the boards of Manchester Elementary Middle School (MEMS), Zion Preschool and the Northshire Community Foundation. She was an early board member of Friends of MEMS, which raised money for enrichment programs that went above and beyond the taxpayer-funded budget. She also served as a board member of the Manchester School Fund.

Kathleen is chair of the Town of Manchester Democrats and a Class of 2018 graduate of Emerge Vermont, a statewide nonprofit that trains women Democrats to run for public office. She’s also a grassroots political activist, working with groups like MoveOn Manchester and Earth Matters on projects that promote voter awareness and engagement.

Kathleen’s wife, Alexandra Heintz, is the
patient safety officer at Southwestern
Vermont Health Care. Her older daughter lives in Chicago and her younger daughter is a college freshman; both girls graduated from MEMS and Burr and Burton Academy. She is an avid cross-country skier and founder of the women’s vocal group SoFar.